Neglecting America`s Display Window

June 24, 1986|By Michael Kilian, a member of The Tribune`s Washington bureau.

The federal government has been contributing to the national mirth in recent weeks with the unfolding saga of the Sagging Inaugural Gown.

Because of federal spending cuts mandated by Gramm-Rudman-Hollings, the Smithsonian Institution lacks the budgetary wherewithal to repair the inaugural gowns of Nancy Reagan and a few of the other First Ladies. The gowns are on display in the Smithsonian`s Museum of American History.

Satirists such as G.B. Trudeau of the comic strip ``Doonesbury`` have been treating it as a hoot, especially as the damage to Nancy Reagan`s historic frock amounts to loose beads, stretching threads and a lengthening hem.

Another ``Gramm-Rudman Horror Story,`` Doonesbury proclaimed it.

In point of fact, it is a horror story--one far more significant than the comparatively tiny part of the federal deficit reduction effort that the Smithsonian museums and other federal cultural establishments are being made to bear.

It is a reflection of the nation`s priorities. The essence of the Gramm-Rudman mechanism is that it has no priorities. It`s intended as a whack of the ax across the entire budget, in the name of egalitarian fairness. What is done to Housing and Urban Development bureaucrats must be done to Smithsonian scholars.

But according to American History Museum director Roger Kennedy, Gramm-Rudman egalitarianism applied to an institution like the Smithsonian can be devastating. Fully 92 percent of the Smithsonian`s budget is in civil service salaries. This year`s Gramm-Rudman cuts alone reduced by more than half the remaining 8 percent of its budget--which pays for upkeep, restoration, acquisition, new exhibits, outreach and education.

The personnel costs cannot be reduced except through attrition. That has already compelled the closing of some exhibits--and on one recent day, an entire museum floor--because of a lack of guards. Summer hours were eliminated, severely reducing public access. Maintenance has been reduced, and filth and litter have accumulated in public areas. Roofs are cracking and there`s increasing structural decomposition.

The Smithsonian is the chief repository of American knowledge and culture. It possesses more than 150 million objects--from priceless paintings to newt skulls--all of which have to be maintained. The Museum of American History alone has 16 million objects, and some 500,000 to 1 million new ones come in every year. More than a million valuable objects are stored in asbestos, and cannot be removed except by an expensive process for which there are no funds.

``This is our national culture,`` Kennedy said in an interview.

The Smithsonian and other federal cultural establishments serve as America`s display window to the world. Of the millions of people who visit them every year, a substantial percentage are foreigners.

As Kennedy notes, the great museums of Europe, even in financially strapped and austerity-bent Britain, are putting ours to shame. Whatever else they suffer, the people and governments of countries like China, the Soviet Union and Mexico cherish their national museums.

But when they come to the capital of the United States, they will find gum wrappers, dust and signs saying ``closed.`` President Reagan and Congress are celebrating ignorance.